Legal Term Dictionary

Search our free database of thousands of legal terms. The easiest-to-read, most user-friendly guide to legal terms.This dictionary is from the early 20th century and is not to be construed as legal advice.

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  • PEDE PULVEROSUS
    In old English and Scotch law. Dusty-foot. A term applied to itinerant merchants, chapmen, or peddlers who attended fairs.
  • PEDERASTY
    In criminal law. The unnatural carnal copulation of male with male, particularly of a man with a boy; a form of sodomy, (g. v.)
  • PEDIGREE
    Lineage; line of ancestors from which a person descends; genealogy. An account or register of a line of ancestors. Family relationship. Swink v. French, 11 Lea (Tenn.) 80, 47 Am. Rep. 277; People v. Mayne, 118 Cal. 516, 50 Pac. 654, 62 Am. St. Rep. 256.
  • PEDIS ABSCISSIO
    Lat In old criminal law. The cutting off a foot; a punishment anciently inflicted Instead of death. Fleta, lib. 1, c. 38.
  • PEDIS POSITIO
    Lat In the civil and old English law. A putting or placing of the foot. A term used to denote the possession of lands by actual corporal entry upon them Waggoner v. Hastings, 5 Pa. 303
  • PEDIS POSSESSIO
    Lat A foothold; an actual possession. To constitute adverse possession there must be pedis possessio, or a substantial inclosure. 2 Bouv. Inst. no. 2103; Bailey v. Irby, 2 Nott A McC. (S. C) 343, 10 Am. Dec 609.
  • PEDONES
    Foot-soldiers.
  • PEERAGE
    The rank or dignity of a peer or nobleman. Also the body of nobles taken collectively.
  • PEERESS
    A woman who belongs to the nobility, which may be either in her own right or by right of marriage.
  • PEERS
    In feudal law. The vassals of a lord who sat In his court as judges of their co-vassals, and were called "peers," as being each other's equals, or of tbe same condition. The nobility of Great Britain, being the lords temporal having seats in parliament, and including dukes, marquises, earls, More...
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